The Silverstone-based team arrived at the Hungaroring with its first major chassis development of the season after falling progressively further behind its rivals during the opening 10 rounds.
Aston Martin had elected to concentrate its resources on one substantial package rather than introducing smaller updates throughout the first half of the year.
That approach contributed to a particularly difficult Belgian Grand Prix, where Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were around two seconds adrift of the midfield and more than four seconds off the Q1 benchmark at Spa-Francorchamps.
Although Hungary was expected to suit the car better, Alonso warned the update could not immediately erase the scale of Aston Martin’s deficit.
“It’s difficult to say. I’m not thinking too much on numbers or positions or something like that,” Alonso said.
“There were a couple of tough circuits; I think Silverstone was tough, Spa was one of the toughest – I think we had the guy in front of us [by] 2.1 seconds.
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“There is no package in the world that will give you that amount of time, and probably the position will not change if you ran the updated car in Spa one week ago.
“That’s how we need to treat it, it will change circuit-by-circuit. Hopefully Budapest is a friendly circuit for us.
“Power is not the most important point here. Obviously we will update the car, but not the engine yet.”
The package includes significant aerodynamic revisions and weight reduction, while retaining the main structure of Aston Martin’s chassis and gearbox.
Honda is expected to introduce separate power unit changes at the Dutch Grand Prix, meaning the team would still carry its existing engine deficit in Hungary.
Rather than focusing on a specific position or lap-time gain, Alonso said the weekend would be used to determine whether Aston Martin had chosen the correct development direction.
“We still have some deficit that we need to overcome,” he said.
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“I’m more into the weekend, understanding what is the direction of the car, if we’re in a good path, and if we unlock finally the performance.”
Aston Martin began working on the package after recognising the extent of its problems during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
While its rivals added performance through regular development, Aston Martin continued using largely the same specification before introducing its accumulated changes in Hungary.
Alonso described the package as the beginning of the recovery rather than a complete solution to the weaknesses that had restricted the team throughout the season.
“This is the first step into those fixes, but there are more to come,” he said.
Stroll said there was considerable anticipation inside the team after waiting several months to introduce the new parts.
“Everybody’s excited. It’s a big weekend for us. We’ve been waiting for this weekend for some time. So hopefully it’s good,” he said on Thursday.
However, the Canadian shared Alonso’s caution over expecting one package to transform Aston Martin’s position immediately.
“We’ll see what this package brings us,” he added.
“We’ll know a lot more when we get out there tomorrow if it’s what we expect, better than we expect, not as good as we expect. I think it will answer a lot of these questions tomorrow.
“Then from there we have to keep pushing. It’s not going to be everything we want in one upgrade package. It’s a long season ahead and we just have to keep bringing as much performance as we can.”
Despite Aston Martin’s disappointing start, Alonso remained confident that Adrian Newey and the team’s expanded technical operation would eventually produce a front-running car.
“It’s not that I need answers,” he said.
“I think I have a pretty clear picture of the team, that we will fix all the problems. They take time, but I have no doubts, I have zero doubts that Adrian will provide the best car on the grid sooner or later.
“As I said before, I would like to see the first step with this package, understanding after the first couple of races, and I think there’s going to be more to come next year, that’s for sure, and the years to come.”
Alonso was equally confident Honda would overcome the problems that had affected the beginning of its renewed works partnership with Aston Martin.
The two-time world champion said the remaining uncertainty was not whether the project would eventually succeed, but how quickly the team could become competitive.
“It’s just how soon the car will be competitive – that’s the question mark,” he said.
“Maybe the next two races will give us a little bit of a feeling for that.”
Aston Martin’s first running with the new package proved inconclusive in opening practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Alonso finishing 13th while Stroll placed 21st after an apparent rear suspension failure triggered the session’s only red flag.
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